As we all know, the MCU is just getting bigger and bigger with regards to its success and Marvel are clearly not going to let up in making these movies. The challenge, of course, will be as actors get older or no longer want to make the films, what do they do: recast or simply introduce new characters?

Recasting could be problematic. Sure both Hulk and War Machine have been played by two actors now, but the actors changed in the early days of the MCU whilst the audience was still growing. Finding someone new to play Stark or Rogers et al now, could be a far riskier strategy and potentially derail the franchise (particularly if the case changed en masse). And there is the issue of timeline: Marvel have anchored the MCU very much against our calendar.

Introducing new characters could work - of the six original (film) Avengers, all but Black Widow have seen other people take on mantle of each in the comics but, again, it could be risky and provide jumping off points.

I agree that either way, recasting or replacing, carries a risk. This is a unique problem, which previous superhero films did not have, because they were self-contained and not part of a "cinematic universe."

But I do think we're still several years away before this becomes a major concern. For now it appears that are just going to keep pushing forward with either new characters (I think Black Panther and the upcoming Captain Marvel are being positioned as the new linchpins of the MCU) or legacies (as the big rumor has Sebastion Stan's Bucky taking over the mantle of Captain America from Chris Evans' Steve Rogers after Avengers 4). Plus with the potential of adding the X-Men and Fantastic Four to the MCU at some point now, I think the Marvel Movie Brand is strong enough to continue without Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man or any other recasting, should the originals drop out, for now..

Shoot, who knows? Maybe it will work to just keep moving forward in time, acknowledging character's ages and "permanent" changes in a way that can't be done in the comics? 20 years from now we may get a live action "NEXT AVENGERS" film, featuring the children of many of the original heroes?

The Infinity Gauntlet offers the perfect opportunity to recast. Tony and Steve sacrifice themselves by using the gauntlet to bring everyone back to life. While their bodies are destroyed, their souls escape to the soul stone. Vision reclaims the stone and casts their souls into new bodies. Recasting:complete!

Not that I think they will do that. I suspect that they will be traveling down the "legacy" road in Avengers 4.

I mean, just get Tom Selleck to take over as Tony Stark/Iron Man. Or Burt Reynolds.

But, seriously, as someone who grew up enjoying Roger Moore's 007, it was quite a shock, in 1987, to go to the cinema knowing he wouldn't be in that. However, Dalton's Bond came fully-formed, I immersed myself in the film, and I enjoyed both of his appearances immensely.

An actor - maybe not even yet an adult - could take over the role of Iron Man (or any role), I'm sure.

I think it will be more easily accepted if the recasting is staggered. A new actor in the role of, say Captain America, will be more easily accepted, I think, if they are in a film alongside RDJ as Iron Man and Hemsworth as Thor.

If they try and recast all the Avengers in one job lot, I think people are more likely to reject it.

When people go to see Ironman is it to see a RDJ movie or an Ironman movie? I remember, when Chris Evans was first cast as Captain America, many saying that people would just see The Human Torch. Some of these actors were not even the first choice to play these rolls. We could be asking is it possible to replace John Krasinski as Captain America or Timothy Olyphant as IronMan.

I think these movies are like the Comic counterparts to a degree. The right team and sales will be stay steady or grow, a bad team and they will still keep most of the base fans but lose sales. The difference is replacement characters are a very expensive gamble in film compared to comics. Replacing Tony Stark as Ironman with Riri Williams in a comic is a few month experiment and if it fails it is easily reversed and done, as a movie that is a 200 million dollar gamble. As strange as it is to say, if Captain Marvel is a success they will never be able to replace her with the original.

I know some actors have been making noises about leaving , but the MCU is probably the best, most stable paycheck in showbiz. And staying in the MCU draws audiences to their other movies, shows, endorsements, etc. It's probably a huge hit to leave such a major franchise. When was the last time anyone watched a Christian Bale movie after The Dark Knight Rises?

We`re on our third Spider-man with no problems, i`d rather they re-cast than bring in female Thor etc!

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I'd say there's been A LOT of problems but to each its own :)

Anyway, I don't think they'll recast the Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Thor roles, at least not in this "generation". And my spidey-sense says that Avengers 4 will be their last film, but that's just my spidey-sense.

Bucky Cap, War Machine, Valkyrie (is she even alive?) could replace them in future Avengers film and there's still a lot of Marvel Universe to explore with the "new" X-Men and FF surely coming home sooner than later.

When the well dries up, if it ever does, they can come up with a rebooted, "Ultimate" Avengers this time with new actors, but I bet it'll be 20 years from now.

Bucky Cap, War Machine, Valkyrie (is she even alive?) could replace them in future Avengers film

The MCU has an interesting option to avoid turning everything over to legacy characters:if they lose Iron Man, they don't have to try to convert War Machine from second banana to top dog, they have the Black Panther for hitech jetsetting adventure. When Thor gets too old for mythical quests, Doctor Strange science sufficiently advanced to be magic. I'm at a bit of a loss for Captain America; with Steve Rogers's face out there, there's little justification for the Winter Soldier to assume the role, and I don't see him exploring America as his own entity. "Captain Marvel" will be a period piece, will she get pulled out of time? Will they follow the early Marvel Captain Marvel and allegorize Man's inhumanity to Man with Kree's inkreemanity to Kree?

Bill Bixby, Eric Bana, Edward Norton, Mark Ruffalo...I think that I'm fine with re-casting. Marvel Studios may have painted themselves into a bit of a corner by pushing us to see the individual actors as being the characters with charity appearances and things like that but I'd like to think that the characters are bigger than Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, etc..(even though the characters have been somewhat given the actors personalities in the movies). Everyone has their favorite Bond but usually people just want to good James Bond movie

One of the challenges will be how much the characters age in the film. If Tom Holland's Spider-Man graduates, for example, gets a job, married and becomes a CEO somewhere, sure you can recast the part but you can never get back to Peter Parker being a teen unless you restart the whole franchise and I can't Marvel wanting to do that right. Of course, for years the comics got the balance just right but more recently they progressed the characters into points of no return and I can see the movies going in the same direction.

And a slight digression, but whilst I love Infinity War and Civil War, the crossovers will start to tire if we get them too often. Again, the comics fell into this trap - I just hope the movies don't do the same (if indeed they haven't already).

These actors do a disservice to these characters if they can not be replaced. If the actor becomes more important than an established character from the original medium is that a failure on the actors part? A great actor becomes the character, the character should not become the actor. Does RDJ make a great Tony Stark or does he do a great RDJ being Tony Stark in name only. When watching him in unscripted settings are his characteristics and mannerisms different from when he is on screen? Maybe actors playing these roles for too long is actually a problem. I believe I read that writers made the last Thor movie more humorous because Chris Hemsworth has good comedic talents. Like it or not, should characters be written to an actors strength or make an actor act to the characters strength?

They also need to learn to stop making the same mistakes that the comics now make - stop referring to the passage of time.

They keep giving us dates in these films. Stop it. Stop saying the attack on New York was six years ago. It doesn’t have to be. Just because a film came out six years ago doesn’t mean it had to be set six years ago.

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